Red Sox Leave Door Open For Franchise-Altering Decision

The Boston Red Sox obviously have a big decision looming.

Who is going to be the team’s long-term option at first base for the rest of the season? Triston Casas is done for the year. In the short term, Abraham Toro, Nick Sogard, and Romy González -- when he returns from injury -- will all be options for the team at first base. The big question right now is what about Rafael Devers? He recently spoke to the team and made it clear he didn’t want to take over the position.

It sounds like the conversation isn’t completely done, though. Manager Alex Cora talked about first base and Devers on Saturday and said he isn’t scheduled to take grounders at first base, but the conversation is going to continue, as shared by MassLive.com's Chris Cotillo.

"Cora said there are no current plans to have Devers take 1B reps but that conversations continue," Cotillo said. "'He’s DHing today... We’ll keep talking about stuff. We’ll keep looking for alternatives, with what we need to do to keep getting better,' Cora said. 'Of course, we’ve got Romy, we’ve got Toro and now we’ve got (Sogard). That’s the route we’re going to have right now.'"

If the Red Sox do eventually make a change involving Devers and first base, that would be pretty huge. With Devers at first base, that would open the door for a handful of possibilities. The easy one would be Masataka Yoshida coming up to DH and give the Red Sox another lefty bat. That's not the only option, though. If Devers moves to first base, then the DH spot would be open. The Red Sox easily could shift another player over to DH and open up a field spot for someone like Marcelo Mayer or Roman Anthony if they saw fit.

The easiest move -- at least logically -- would be Devers to first base and Yoshida to DH. But, there are ways to make this team better and it sounds like the organization is still keeping the door open. A move of Devers to first base could have long-term implications as well. If he were to move to first and play well and like it, could he be the long-term solution there? And if so, what about Casas' future in Boston?